Knowledge networks depend for their success on the right social environment. We have worked within many such respectful, trusting, nurturing, and educational social environments, and those experiences have led us to write this book. We both spent many years learning together with hundreds of others in building a small, self-sufficient community in Tennessee. We applied what we learned in that challenging social experiment to the work we did in the early days of our first online communities at The WELL and Women.com. The members of those communities showed us the value of lowering the communications boundaries between management and customers. In those and in subsequent positions at AOL, Digital City, Salon.com, and PlanetRX, we observed the value of informal knowledge sharing through the Net. And so we thank the innumerable people we worked with and did our best to serve for being our teachers in collaboration in those virtual but still very personal environments.
We would not have traveled our respective paths toward community interaction were it not for the support and example of our families. And so we each acknowledge their parts in our development as leaders who look for the ways in which people agree rather than ways in which they disagree.
- Nancy:
I want to thank my mother and father, Bill and Dorothy Gerard, who have always exemplified the essential best practices of granting people the benefit of the doubt regardless of age, race, gender, or social standing. I have learned from them that 99 percent of the time people not only prove worthy of that trust, but even rise admirably to the occasion. Thanks also to my three daughters, Leah, Emmy, and Odessa, who are carrying this compassionate and intelligent legacy of their grandparents into the new millennium. It is, indeed, a fine way to live.
- Cliff:
Thanks to my parents, Bruno and Gwen, and to my kids who have kept my attention and care on people more than technology. Thanks to my coworkers through the years—whether building houses, installing village water systems, or managing online communities—for teaching me how to listen and work together for the common good.
We'd like to acknowledge all of those who provided the information and stories that have made this book happen. Special thanks go to Tom Brailsford of Hallmark for his generous insight into what may be the model of customer relationships for the future. And last, but not least, we express our appreciation for the support of our development editor at John Wiley & Sons, Scott Amerman, for gently leading us through the writing of this book.